This is 8-year-old Jeffrey loving life and playing hockey in Waterloo, Ontario, circa 1993. Please note the Red Wings jersey and non-matching North Stars socks, the one long Bugs Bunny tooth beside the small baby chiclet, and my bedhead hair that I refused to comb while knowing full-well it was picture day. (Submitted photo/Sharon D’Andrea, my lovely mumsie)

By Jeff D’Andrea

End of an era

This is my last piece for paNOW; Jeffrey’s farewell column

Jun 29, 2022 | 5:00 PM

I have been so entrenched in the Prince Albert sports scene, that it feels weird to step away.

I told two friends of mine on different occasions that I was moving to Ottawa at the end of June. Within minutes, they both said something along the lines of “okay, so when you return for the start of the next Raiders’ season…” They just assumed I was coming back somehow.

In fairness to them, you have to go all the way back to the 2010-11 season when the Prince Albert Raiders were not covered by a tall, lanky man with an apostrophe in his Italian last name. The real deal Mark McNeill was a rookie back then, remember him?

So yes. After 700+ WHL games, 700+ honey crullers, and 1,821,210 cups of coffee, I am stepping down from my role as sports editor, Raider beat reporter, occasional announcer, and commentator, and hockey name pun machine from paNOW and our stations. I’m moving out East with my fiancée Mira, who is a badass doctor, to get married and start our lives closer to our immediate families.

I’ve covered so many amazing events and people. I’ll never forget the grind and the journey in 2019 for the Raiders as they won their second WHL title in franchise history. People camped out overnight at the rink just to get a ticket during the playoffs, milk crates and step ladders were hauled into the Art Hauser Centre to make sure fans could actually see the action. Crushing fresh lobster with Raiders general manager Curtis Hunt and the rest of the staff and board members in Halifax during the Memorial Cup—it doesn’t get much better than that.

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I’ll never forget Dec. 29, 2021 when I finally made my WHL play-by-play debut. Raider rookie Vladislav Shilo scored his first, second, and third goals that game in a thrilling 8-6 loss to the Red Deer Rebels that completely ruined my voice for screaming at all the goals. Shilo’s billet dad Roger Pagé threw a giant orange hat to celebrate the goal, a fact I discovered live during the postgame show. Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid even gave me a heartfelt compliment for my long-awaited debut, but promised that would be the last good thing he’d say about me (that’s fine Habby! It’s on tape!)

I’ll never forget drilling a beer out of the Telus Cup after the Prince Albert Mintos won it in Moose Jaw in 2014. I’ll never forget the Prince Albert Bears sweeping the seemingly unbeatable Saskatoon Stars to win the Fedoruk Cup in 2017. The Prince Albert Predators creating a dynasty in the Prairie Gold Lacrosse League, Brittany Hudak becoming a Paralympian medal machine, Danny Klughart crushing it on the golf course, the Canadian Tire Classic clashes between the Marauders and Crusaders, I’ve got to witness and cover so many great achievements.

And during the pandemic when there were literally no sports across the world, I was gladly not fired and given a role in news instead. I got so much more out of that opportunity than I thought I would. I’m most proud of my stories of Indigenous rights, covering the Archbishop of Canterbury’s visit to James Smith Cree Nation and the Prince Albert Grand Council, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Walk, and Tristen Durocher’s 44-day hunger strike. They were very difficult to tell, but I did my absolute best to do each of those stories justice.

I want to thank the newsroom for allowing me to go out and cover these huge events and call games for the Battlefords North Stars and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, while holding down the fort in my absence. Our big news boss Teena Monteleone has been amazing to work with and always puts her workers first, helping them succeed.

Rookie Raider reporter Logan Lehmann, who I’m told looks a lot like me, is going to take over for me and I have full confidence in him. He reminds me of when I started out in the business so long ago. I just hope he will have as much fun as I did in the role. I’m sure he’ll fit right in.

As much as it hurts to leave, I’m very happy with the change. Mira and I are very excited. And there’s at least a 60 per cent chance that I will reconnect with former-Raider fan favourite and now Ottawa Senator ‘Pesky’ Parker Kelly, and we’ll become best friends and he’ll stay at my house all the time.

I can’t wait to see what the future holds for me and my own family there.

But make no mistake. There will always be a small part of me that will be sitting right in the middle of the Art Hauser Centre’s press box looking over some stats, crushing a cruller that Ann Mayert herself hid in the cupboard just for me, and waiting for the Raiders to take the ice.

Thank you so much for reading and listening.

–

Jeff.dandrea@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW